Japanese Patent Application National Publication (Laid-Open) No. 9-512012, p. 20 to 22 discloses that asymmetric hydrolysis of methyl    2-[{(1,1-dimethylethoxy)carbonyl}amino]-4-pentynoate using α-chymotrypsin in a phosphate buffer and the subsequent post treatment thereof give    2-(S)-[{(1,1-dimethylethoxy)carbonyl}amino]-4-pentynoic acid having an enantiomer excess of 88% e.e. and discloses that processes of dissolving the resultant    2-(S)-[{(1,1-dimethylethoxy)carbonyl}amino]-4-pentynoic acid in an ether-based solvent and crystallizing this from the solvent give    2-(S)-[{(1,1-dimethylethoxy)carbonyl}amino]-4-pentynoic acid having an enantiomer excess of 99% e.e. Thus, the method described in Laid-Open No. 9-512012 needs further a process of recrystallization for obtaining an intended compound having high optical purity.
The present inventors have investigated to find a method for producing optically active N-protected-propargylglycine with few problems as described above and resultantly found that an intended compound of high optical purity needing no recrystallization process can be produced by using an enzyme derived from a certain kind of microorganism.